JMS Script Book #15

First off, we have a photo of original concept art for the Babylon 5 logo on the back cover. Inside are so many amazing things. There is the series spec sheet that JMS (along with John Copeland and Doug Netter) dragged around to TV executives for five years. There is the Bablyon 5 writer’s bible which JMS made to help other writers get up to speed with the B5 universe. There is a production draft of “The Gathering”. Yeah, remember that draft back in volume one? It is an earlier version. We also have a first draft of “The Sky Full of Stars” which was used to get an idea of budget requirements, and while similar in some ways is also very different. Also included is the first draft of “Soul Hunters”, which is again very different – this is the script JMS felt was too much like Star Trek. A real treat is the additions JMS made to the script “The Exercise of Vital Powers” as payback to Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik. But the two prizes of most worth are at the end. The first is a brief but complete treatment of Babylon 5 as it would have happened if Sinclair had stayed. All I can say is, wow. Finally, we have Joe cuts, which catalogs every major difference between the scripts and what was actually shown. For those who stuck it out and bought the first fourteen volumes, this volume is very much a highlight of the collection.